Inside the mind of a sociologist (Perspective post)

First things first, I'm so glad to have the time to be back at what I'm doing again! Realistically, this has been my first day of R&R since the 5th of June.

As I've now become hooked onto how sociology works, I thought about sharing an insight as to how a sociologist visions the world through their inquisitive eyes... (Or you could say my eyes!)

A sociologist will happen to be in a place full of people who tend to hang out in their own groups. Within those groups, the sociologist takes it upon themselves to interestingly identify how these groups tend to behave in the way that they do, in a bid to create social attraction.

This is where the sociologist does their detective work, as they figure out what makes those groups influence other people to join in with them. But the sociologist is foremost fascinated by the way these people in their groups already endure their influential behaviour, as the sociologist can easily work out that it must be to do with how they socialize in their family that makes them influential in the way that they are today.  

Of course, this will only spur the sociologist to look into these people's social medias to find the link which causes online social interaction between one another or a group of people. This is where the sociologist discovers that their way of thinking is infinite, as they figure out that there are a never-ending amount of answers in relations to investigating social behaviour/interaction. 

Sociology & social media

Long time, no see everybody! 

As I'm sure you can all figure out immediately, I've been busy keeping myself occupied with other things going on in my life at the moment. All of which, has prevented me from doing any work on here during that time being.

However, if there has to be at least 1 useful aspect from my reasonable absence period, (blog related) it would have to be that I've been curiously researching about sociology. Not just the term itself, but specifically how it can have an impact on the way people choose to behave on social media.

Just to make everyone here aware, I have been doing my research investigation in several articles & blogs which have been published by people who are qualified in the subject, so I know what I will be talking about here.

Plus, this will give me the opportunity to happily educate everybody reading this what these types of people normally do on social media which makes them behave in the way that they do and why.

Example 1:

You are friends with a group of people in your college class on Snapchat, who only like to use it to keep in contact with everybody else, as well as being able to be silly with one another. In this day and age, pretty much every young person uses Snapchat for this prime reason, as they must really like this kind of social interaction with their friends, let alone a group of college classmates being able to see what their classmates are up to.

To make a personal reference to that example, I personally have no intention of using Snapchat, but I see and overhear my classmates at college interact with one another on there almost on an everyday basis. I can empathise how they must enjoy the filter creativity on there, so it encourages their other classmates to take notice of what they enjoy doing on there which makes them conform to their filterness behaviour.

Example 2:

You are connected with some of your friends on Instagram, but all they seem to do is regularly change their profile picture and not post anything. Now, before anyone gets themselves carried away, those types of people may CHOOSE not to post anything on their Instagram, but they may choose not to post anything, as they may feel too insecure about themselves on there. These insecurities can vary from those people feeling worried about what the comments will be - simply not at all interested about wanting to impress themselves to impress others on there.

In terms of talking about conformity, you will see some friends who you are connected to on Instagram, but they all choose to not to post anything. This is the now typically type of behaviour on Instagram which influences their friends to do the same, as they think it's the best way to get in with their friends. Although, to be fair, social conformity is not just used on Instagram, it can be used in all social media platforms. Again, this is what I'm seeing as a personal insight.

 Example 3:

This is one other type of conformity which is now happening across all social media platforms. It is where oneself rarely posts any pictures, but when they do, they must always feel the need to tag people in their posts. However, this is more commonly used in their stories where it can only be visible to everyone they are connected with for 24hrs, as they do not want it to keep them visible forever. The prime reason behind this behaviour, is so the people who oneself decides to tag, wants those people to see and admire these posts, as well as for those wanting the other people who they didn't tag to admire the people who they did tag.

And you know what... I'm beginning to get hooked onto sociology! So much, that I'm thinking of doing a follow-up post in relations to this one!

If anyone reading happens to be interested in sociology, then be sure to keep an eye out for my next post!😉

What is conformity and how does it make us behave?

Conformity. Something very interesting I've learned recently.

In case if none of you here don't know what the term means, it basically means you're doing the same as everybody else, even regardless if it's something wrong... But with that said, it's always good to simply stand out as your own individual! 

I'm just about to further explain on that...

Example 1:

A good example of conformity, would be when you are officially a member of any uniformed public service and you must therefore, dress and behave the same as everybody else.

But why? It's because it shows respect towards your colleagues, the public and yourself, by physically demonstrating you want to be part of a hard working team.

This kind of behaviour, will eventually transform yourself into a confidently disciplined person, who feels proud to be a part of a team, by thinking that you want to be setting a prime example to those looking up to you. E.g. The public. 

Example 2:

A not so good example of conformity, would be when you go to see your favourite football team play.

Whilst you are either sitting down or standing up, trying to enjoy the game like most people, you then hear a small group of people (at first) shouting rude chants. Some can actually turn racist... Eventually you start to hear more and more people get involved with the rude chanting, even though, it seemed like they never wanted to intend on getting involved in the first place.

You sit there thinking to yourself if it's the right thing to do, by joining in with these people, but then again, you hate the idea of being disrespectful to the right-choiced people around you, let alone turning into a racist. This is where your 'Individual Liberty' and 'Human Rights' come into play.

Final conclusion: You must be able to identify the good and bad examples of conformity, as they both have different consequences.

Thank you for reading through and as always, I much appreciate your thoughts on the feedback. Have a great evening all, whatever you're doing.😉

 

Why does social media influence people into the way they are?

Hello my fellow readers, hope you're all enjoying your weekends so far. As for me, I've been a tad busy recently, due to me starting back at college again, so I'm currently keeping myself prioritized with upcoming coursework.

However, this week, I've been writing down ideas on what my next post should be about, then I thought about making some kind of follow-up post from my previous one about social media. 

Link here: The psychology behind social media

What I've found on the internet:

Just last night, I've done some research on how can sociology can play a part in social media influencing, (I'll discuss about that in the next subheading) and one of the key factor which plays a huge role is something called: "Gaining empathy from one-another"

This is now very much commonly used by people on their socials, (namely Instagram) to attract likes and comments by their friends, as this is their own way of showing they require attention from their friends or close friends, (if necessary) in the EXACT moment that publish has been created on their social media. Here's the link to my research source: Mirroring

How can sociology be used within social media influences?:

For those of you who are not familiar with the term 'Sociology' it is another one of those scientific human behavioural studies, which mainly focuses on how humans typically behave in social situations around us. A prime example of this would be, how do we typically behave around our families and why do we behave the way we do around them. You could otherwise say, this all comes under the overall psychology umbrella. If you know what I mean.

What I'm seeing a lot on Instagram nowadays, and I'm not just aiming at friends/family either, is people never intending to post anything, yet they still have the intention of posting eventually on there, but this is to just simply gain lots of likes and comments from them, especially their close friends, as they will always be the ones who will support those individuals from day 1 - until the very end.

Let's say, you live in a family of people who have Instagram, but never actually post anything on there, unless it's a special moment in their lifetime, in which, it could be birthdays, in memory of someone or even a major celebration etc.

If your only posts were to be about the above listed things, therefore, you'll be hoping to get as many likes and comments from nearly everyone who follows you on there, meaning, they say lovely things to you, or even just use emojis as a substitute. (Depending on if you're a lover of them or not, as not everyone like the idea of using emojis in their communication)

To flip this point the other way round, if you see a friend/family member do EXACTLY the same thing as what you do on Instagram, you'll be the one who gives out all the likes and comments, in order to help them feel good about themselves in life.

If you were a celebrity, that would be a different scenario all together, as you NEED to post things on your social media, as it's YOUR job to keep the public updated about every single thing you get up to in your famous life, so you'll be able to make a living out of it. This way, other celebrities will give you lots of likes and praise, to help you to keep moving forwards with your career.

If I have to conclude all of this in my own way, it would be, that I see people now enjoy echoing on-another, so they can fit within their own form of society. Bare in mind, I'm not saying this is either a good or bad thing, as you may very well now, that I'm just curious to know how these things work and why.

Lastly and foremost, everyone has an individual right to be themselves on whatever social media. I want to put this message out there.

That's all for this topic.

Thank you very much for reading through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person.

Bye for now!😊